Dastardly Deeds

Controversial cartoons can still cause a stir today but this hair raising number penned in 1880 shows shock tactics are nothing new. The cartoon, titled ‘A Deed of Mediaval Days’ is from the Maraval Jackdaw,a shipboard ‘newspaper’ which was written on the Maraval, a passenger ship which sailed from London to New Zealand between October 1879 and January 1880. Just who the “Siberian Murderer” or the unfortunate ruler (and his cat) depicted in this cartoon are is not known, although the few lines of accompanying text suggest the cartoon may have been prompted by the 1879 assassination attempts on the Russian Tsar Alexander II.

The Maraval Jackdaw was edited by two theatrical passengers, Morris Fox and Oswald Pinel, and includes chronicles of both on-board and mainland related high-jinks jibes and entertainment. With a number of whimsical sketches scattered through its pages, the periodical was designed so passengers could pass more “pleasantly a few of the tedious hours which are inevitable in every long voyage”.  A single volume of the Jackdaw was hired out at a penny for a maximum of half an hour, and its five brief issues give a cheery middle class view of the trip.

Arriving in Wellington on 23 January 1880 the Maravalians disembarked into the grim realities of a country entering the economic doldrums caused by a slump in international credit, heavily indebted landowners and falling wool prices, which was later termed the ‘Long Depression’. In an anti-immigration rant published in November 1880 Reverend Foster, of Dunedin noted: “I was in Wellington when the Maraval arrived. I saw some of the passengers for weeks after their arrival, with their little savings, that they fondly hoped would prove the nucleus of a fortune, quickly ebbing away and nothing before them but pick and shovel work…”